In many existing combine harvesters, the coupling of a header to the feeder or straw elevator of the combine is an operation involving a number of steps, several of which require manual intervention by the combine operator. To establish an initial connection, the header is positioned on the ground and the operator drives the combine up to the header. Thereby first lowering the feeder and subsequently lifting the header up, for example by means of a hydraulic lifting system, until an interlocking contact is established, e.g. between a cradle on the feeder and an interlocking beam on the header. The feeder then further lifts up the header until the header rests against the front surface of the feeder. At that point, the operator needs to manually secure the header by a suitable locking mechanism, e.g. by rotating a hook located at the underside of the contact zone until it grabs a pin or bar located at the rear of the header. After that, the operator manually connects the drive shaft of the header to the drive shaft of the feeder. Such manual operations are often impractical and time consuming, so a number of efforts have been made to automate the coupling procedure. Patent publication EP-A-1884151 discloses a system comprising a movable gearbox and a telescopic jack shaft assembly for establishing an automatic connection of the drive shafts after the initial interlocking. Patent publication US-A-2008/0256914 is related to another system, involving a stationary gearbox secured to the feeder, and a telescopic jack shaft assembly. In both of these known systems, the coupling is realized by a lateral movement (perpendicular to the driving direction of the combine), which requires the presence of hydraulic actuators for coupling the drive shafts. Also, these known arrangements do not allow a lateral floatation of the header with respect to the combine feeder, i.e. a variation of the angle between the header and the ground around a central longitudinal axis.